Peters House
by DancingStar01
Summary: Peter has inherited a house. The building turns out to be a death trap... Pairing: C/L, J/S


Title: Peters House  
Author: Dancing Star  
Crossover: PSI Factor / Sue Thomas FBEye  
Pairing: Connor / Lindsay, Jack / Sue  
Rating: 12  
Category: AU, Mystery, Romance,  
What happens: Peter has inherited a house. The building turns out to be death trap.  
Notes: There is nothing worse than the flu. However, I then have plenty of time finish this story at home.

**Peters House**

It was a sunny day in May, when Peter received mail from a lawyer. His colleague Jack and Sue joked that he maybe was caught in a speed trap. Once the penalty office had sent Peter a photo in which he had been flashed at excessive speeds in his car. They found the attached photo particularly funny because in the photo Peter looked like as if he sat with his eyes closed behind the steering wheel of his car. Even today, the picture hung on a bulletin board in the Mobile Lab to everyone's amusement, as Jack said sometimes.  
"I don´t know why I get mail from the lawyer," Peter said and tore open the envelope, "I can´t remember that I was recently re- caught in a speed trap." Peter glanced at the letter. "My Uncle Eddie died," Peter read and finally sat down with his friends, who just ate their lunch, on the couch, "And he left me his property. His house."  
"You have inherited a house?," Connor asked and also read the letter from the lawyer. "It says the house is located in Minnesota," Connor said, "For what do you need a house in Minnesota?"  
"Would be a nice holiday home," Peter replied, "We could go fishing on our next vacation."  
"How old are we? 85? ", Jack wanted to know, looking at him incredulously.  
Sue sat down between Peter and Jack. Her dog Levi followed her, because he hoped that a part of her lunch would maybe drop for him dropped. "The lawyer has even put photos of the house in the envelope," Sue stated and fished out four prints. The photos showed a massive log house with a large garden in the foreground. There was a garage and a pond for fishing. Sue had to admit the house looked very nice.  
"We could look at it once, at least..."  
"We?"  
"I don´t want to travel there by myself," Peter admitted, "Come on. I've never owned a house. "

They took the next plane to Minnesota and because it was quite late when they reached the airport in Minneapolis and they still had a long way to Peter's new house, they decided to spend the night at a hotel. It was a quiet hotel near the airport, but the take-off and landing aircrafts enabled them a good night's sleep.  
At midnight Peter was awakened by a persistent ringing and when he raised his head tired, he noticed his cell phone was ringing and almost dancing on the bedside table. The screen lit up and a blue telephone handset was to see. He didn´t know the incoming number.  
"Hello?", He answered and only heard a noise on the line. "Hello?" He repeated, but no answer came. "Probably you dialed the wrong number," he murmured, ending the call and fell back into his pillow.

At the same time in Lindsay's hotel room her mobile phone also rang. She was asleep in her bed but the TV was still alive when she was awakened by a steady Spice Girls ringtone. "What ...?", Confused she got up and reached for her cell phone. At second glance, she noticed that she had never seen before the caller's number. Lindsay smoothened her hair stressed and then answered the conversation. "Who's there?", She said huskily.  
Then she listened. When there was no answer she looked doubtfully at her cell phone and then hung up. She grabbed the remote control, switched off the TV and fell back into her bed.

The ringtone of his mobile phone in his hotel room woke Connor up from sleep. He hadn´t slept very long and after the day had been very eventful, he could use a little rest. Connor's eyes burned as he reached for his cell phone and replied. "Here is Connor… Doyle", he reported with sleep and then fell backwards into his pillow with the mobile phone in his hand. He also noted that his avoidable interlocutor wouldn´t talk to him. "Who's there?", Connor asked but there was no answer to this question. So he hung up.

Heading to the house they had to fill up the car, so they stopped at a gas station. Connor took care about the car was refueled. Peter, Lindsay, Jack and Sue were standing outside the vehicle and talked. "Something really strange happened to me last night ," Peter told, grinning, "My cell phone rang and when I answered the call, no one was on the phone."  
"Really?", Connor looked up, "The same happened to me."  
"Yeah, me too," Lindsay agreed and looked at Jack and Sue, "What about you?"  
"No," Sue shook her head. Levi didn´t wake her last night, so she assumed her phone hadn´t rung. They found it strange, but they decided to pay less attention and Sue suggested to have breakfast inside the gas station. First they sat down at a table by the window, but they changed, as in the back of the restaurant a table with a couch was available. "Excuse me for a second," Peter said to them and got up to get some coffee.  
Five old people, three men and two women, entered the restaurant and sat down at a table by the window. The table at which they had been sitting. "That's us, when we are old," Sue said with a slight smile, "I hope we're still friends then."  
"I hope so, too," agreed Lindsay. She thought it was sweet that Sue thought so.  
A waitress came and asked them if they had already decided what they wanted to eat. "We should eat only a little thing," Connor suggested, "It´s not far until the house."  
"Do you have a holiday cottage here?," the waitress asked.  
"No, our friend inherited a house from his uncle," Sue said, pointing to Peter, who was still waiting for his coffee at the counter. "He looks like Eddie", the waitress muttered, "Excuse me. I just noticed he looks like a resident, who died recently."  
"Eddie Axon?", Lindsay asked, "We live in his house... What happened to him? How did he die?"  
"The Sherriff found him dead one morning in his living room. Eddie sat in his chair and in front of him the TV was still on... He probably had a heart attack, his doctor said."  
"That means Eddie Axon died in his house?"  
"Yes," the waitress noticed that her boss was watching and impatiently tapped his watch. Finally she shook her head, "Have you already decided what you want to eat?"  
They ordered five Tartes and waited until Peter came back with his cup of coffee. Of course he noticed the worried expression of his friends. "What´s wrong?"  
"Did you know your uncle died in his house?", Lindsay wanted to know, "The waitress told us."  
"I didn´t know," Peter admitted and he was frightened for a moment. He knew this was scary. After ten minutes they got their Tarte and after they had stayed there for half an hour to rest, they went on to Peter's new house.

They were at the house within ten minutes and Connor, who drove the car, didn´t know what to say when he first saw the house. "My goodness," Sue muttered on the back seat, "In the photos it looked much better." In fact, the color of the log cabin much fuller in the photos looked and the garden looked better.  
Sue and Jack first got out of the car. "What´s up?," Jack wanted to know, when Peter was the last person who sat on the back seat. Peter shook his head wordlessly, before he got out. Connor and Lindsay were the last to leave the car.  
"Levi, don´t run so far away," Sue cried after her dog, who already explored the area. She followed him a bit. "I better go with her," Lindsay suggested and Connor nodded.  
"Be careful! Many snakes live up here", he told her when he picked up his bag from the car.  
"Fortunately, we have watched a movie about a giant killer snake a few days before," Lindsay muttered unenthusiastically while she caught up with Sue.  
"What did he say?", Sue asked Lindsay. She hadn´t been able to see what Connor had called to her friend. Sue was deaf and to know what her interlocutor said, she had to see him or her.  
"He said that there are lots of snakes," Lindsay repeated and rolled her eyes.  
"We shouldn´t have watched "Attack of the killer snake", Sue said. Inwardly, she vowed she would never go to the movies with her friends. Especially not if Peter and Jack wanted to watch a scary movie.  
"Today is a really good day," Sue stated and Lindsay nodded in agreement. They watched as Levi sniffed at a tuft of grass, then Sue called after him. Levi ran past her to the house and Sue wanted to follow him, when she turned around again.  
"Did you hear something?", Lindsay asked and the next second she noticed this question was unnecessary. She apologized. Sometimes she forgot Sue couldn´t hear.  
"I don´t know...", Sue shrugged her shoulders helplessly, "I have the feeling someone is watching us."  
"Really?", Lindsay stood on tiptoe, trying to find out if there was someone hiding in the bushes and watching them. She even called "Hello?" once but there was no answer.

"Will you help me carry the bags into the house?," Connor asked and Jack and Lindsay immediately agreed to help him. They had ten bags. When Lindsay reached the house with the first two bags on the arm, Peter unlocked the door for her and inside the house Lindsay pushed a light switch.  
The light bulb above their heads remained dark.  
"The light doesn´t work," she noted, "Peter, are you sure the power is on?"  
"At least I didn´t get a message, that the city would have turned off power," he replied, "I look at the fuse box." He walked to the fuse box, which was located on the other side of the house. Peter noticed the box wasn´t even sealed. He decided he needed to change this first, if he didn´t want someone stealing his power. However, there was no one out here who might steal his power, because the nearest neighbor lived two miles away.  
"Peter, what´s wrong?", Connor called to him, "Do you need an extra invitation?"  
"No, I...", he checked the power cord, "Well, the fuse box is perfectly fine." He closed the box and went on his way to his friends. Peter arrived at the front door pushed the light switch again and he had actually expected that the light bulb was dark, but inside the house it was bright.  
"It didn´t work a few minutes ago," Lindsay promised him when she walked past Peter, "I swear."

Peters Uncle Eddie had always kept the house in a good condition: The decor was clean and all appliances worked perfectly. In the living room there was even a TV and Peter could receive the sports channel. Apparently Peter´s Uncle himself was a big sports fan, because in the living room he stored a collection of baseball gloves and signed balls from the National Baseball League.  
They had dinner together and Peter was talking about the pond behind the garden, where he would catch a fish tomorrow.  
Finally, it was night. Lindsay was in her room, reading in bed when a banging noise over her was plunging the room into darkness. She pushed the blanket aside, got up and went with a flashlight on the way to the kitchen. She hoped that Peter's Uncle had left a replacement bulb somewhere.  
On the stairs she collided with a form and she heard a scream. The person was Sue and Lindsay held her flashlight to her face.  
"What are you doing here?", Sue said.  
"I'm looking for a candle or bulb- replacement ...", Lindsay told, "The bulb in my room is blown."  
"Are you sure?", Of course Sue knew of the allegedly broken lamp, which was only miraculously "cured" by Peter's presence. "Let's go together to the kitchen. I think I've seen some bulbs there today", Sue suggested and together they went down the stairs. "You look creepy if you hold the torch in front of your face," she added, although it was quite clear she couldn´t hear Lindsay's response. Sue never regretted her situation. But there were moments when she was afraid of the endless silence. The combination of silence and darkness was almost the worst thing ever.  
They reached the kitchen and Sue went directly to the drawer where she had seen the light bulbs. Sue gave Lindsay one of them. "I will help you to replace it," she offered, because she couldn´t imagine it was easy to replace a light bulb in a dark room. Lindsay thanked her and when she heard a scratching noise at the window she turned around. "What's wrong?", Sue asked anxiously.  
Lindsay stepped closer and found out that the noise was caused by a tree branch. "Nothing," Lindsay shook her head, "Let's replace the bulb."

The next afternoon saw Connor, how Lindsay was sitting alone in the living room, reading a thick book. "Hey," he greeted her, "Are you alone? Where is Peter?"  
"Peter wanted to go fishing. He said, behind the garden there is an even bigger pond in which he wants to catch more fish for our dinner... Sue and Jack came along. Jack doesn´t believe there's such a big fish." She smiled a little. And Connor also did. He didn´t know if it was because of the fact they were alone, or because she smiled.  
Connor sat in front of her on the couch. "What are you reading?"  
"You ask a lot of questions lately," she noted, closed the book and handed it to him so he could read the title. It was a Spanish classic, as he remarked.  
"Peter didn´t ask you if you also want to come fishing? I ask because he hasn´t asked me, too", but Connor was really grateful for it, because he wasn´t in the mood to sit for hours next to a pond to wait for a fish.  
"Well, he asked," Lindsay replied, "But I didn´t want to come along. I can´t imagine sitting next to a pond all day is fun."  
Connor grinned as she said it. "May I ask one question?"  
"Is this a Spanish Inquisition?", she smiled again.  
"Why didn´t he ask me?", Connor leaned towards her.  
"He did... Indirectly. Peter wanted to know if I knew where you are when he entered the living room, dressed in his fishing gear. You should have seen the hat and the boots he was wearing… I told him I had no idea", Lindsay looked at him and she knew what he was thinking. "I thought we should spend a little time together."  
"Really?", Connor was surprised to hear this.  
But Lindsay understood completely wrong. "Sorry," she said and got up hastily, "I didn´t know you... I didn´t know you have a girlfriend ... I'm sorry."  
"What? I... I have no girlfriend, "he cried and also got up. They met in the doorway. "To tell you the truth, it's great we are alone for a while. And I... I like you a lot and..."  
"I like you a lot, too," she nodded and smiled, "You mean a lot to me."  
Connor barely noticed how he came closer and his hands wandered around her waist.  
"Yes, you mean a lot to me, too." He pulled the closer for a kiss and they were almost dizzy when they first kissed. Lindsay put her arms around his neck. She felt as if she would lose the ground under her feet and simply fly away. Forever.  
"Lindsay, we have four fish ...," Peter cried, as he pushed open the door and then stopped on the spot in the doorway so Jack and Sue were in almost ran into him. Peter saw how Connor and Lindsay stood close to each other in the doorway to the kitchen. He apologized and walked out of the house with his complete fishing equipment and Jack and Sue.

Lindsay washed the salad for their dinner in the kitchen when Sue came to her. "Hi," Sue smiled and grinned conspiratorially. Lindsay returned her greeting.  
"What's wrong?", She wanted to know.  
"Nothing...", Sue went to the refrigerator and pulled out a can of Coke. Then she sat down at the table next to Lindsay. "Today we were quite surprised when we..."  
"Don´t say that," Lindsay warned and held up a hand, "Connor and I know very well what happened today."  
"I think Peter is a bit snapped," Sue speculated, "Well, now he is only surrounded by couples. And I think he was a little in love with you."  
When Sue said that, Lindsay threw the salad into the plastic bowl in front of her. "My goodness," she murmured. The last thing she wanted was that now things would change around them. But the change was already happening. That this wasn´t positive for everybody, she had never considered. "You have to talk to both of them," Sue suggested and Lindsay nodded. She knew she was right.  
"You really look like your uncle at a young age," Jack observed, who watched as Peter was flipping through a photo album of his uncle on the couch.

"We need to talk," her voice sounded serious when she met Connor after dinner. He had gone to the terrace to catch a bit of fresh air, while Levi did his business.  
"That doesn´t sound good," Connor stated. He watched from the corner of his eye, how she sat on the railing of the porch. "I think we should hold back a little with... Well, at least until we have left this place. Peter isn´t fine currently. He still grieves for his uncle..."  
"What does Peter have to do with it?"  
"Well, Sue told me he's obviously a little in love with me..."  
"Then Sue is informed pretty bad. Peter has a girlfriend at headquarters, her name is Ella, or something like that... I don´t know her very well, but I saw them several times together. So there is no reason for worrying."  
Lindsay nodded. "That's nice." But for some reason she found it hard to believe. She still had to talk to Peter about this.  
"Well, hopefully you don´t mind if I spend the night with you today," Connor said and he could see that Lindsay was very surprised about this announcement.  
They wanted to stay on the terrace for a while next to each other, but then Connor leaned to Lindsay and whispered to her: "I think we should go back inside."  
"Why?," she said, just as quietly as he did.  
"I'm not sure ... But I think someone is watching us."

"Good morning, you ...", Peter sounded euphoric in the next morning, but he stopped when he saw the stricken face of his friends, who had gathered around the refrigerator in the kitchen. When Peter came closer, he also saw that someone had distributed the entire contents of the refrigerator out of the ground. The water was melted and the butter paper was soaked, only a soft, yellow mass was left. And because the refrigerator was probably opened all night long, the engine was blown.  
"Who was that?", Peter asked and he immediately had a suspect, "What about Levi?"  
"Levi was with me and Jack the whole night. The door of our room was closed this morning when we woke up."  
"Maybe he has closed the door behind him when he came back," he said, noting the look of disbelief Sue and Lindsay threw to him. "All right. I'm sorry", he apologized, "What about the back door? Maybe it was a raccoon, which came into the house." However, Peter had never seen a raccoon which could open the door to a free-standing refrigerator. "If this was one of you, he or she should now admit," Peter suggested, but they all shook their heads.  
"All right. Write me a list, I go to Wallmart and do some shopping."  
"Now?," Lindsay asked, but got a piece of paper and a pen and wrote down some things they absolutely needed. She remembered the Wallmart store 44 miles off the Highway and Peter told her that the store was open on Sunday morning. He went outside and threw the basket, which he had received from Sue, on the front seat of the car. He shook his head, because he found the green basket was a little embarrassing.  
Before he entered the car and drove off to buy new food for them, Lindsay came out of the house and asked him to wait a moment. "Did you forget something?", Peter asked and fumbled for the shopping list.  
"No, but I think we should talk to each other ", she stopped a few feet in front of him and crossed her arms in front of her chest, "Listen, Peter. What you saw yesterday..."  
"I'm happy for you, but what´s wrong?", Peter didn´t understand.  
"So, Sue told me that... Um. Well... Is it true you´re dating Ella from the IT department?, "she finally said. She watched as Peter's pupils darting restlessly. "Yes, but how does Sue know?"  
"Oh, it´s not important," Lindsay smiled, "Connor told me, you know?" She took a few steps back to the house, waving to him and Peter finally got in the car and drove away. On the porch Lindsay met Connor. "And? What did he say?", he asked curiously.  
"You were right. He´s dating Ella", she said as they walked into the house together.

Peter was on the road until afternoon. His friends suggested that the Wallmart store probably was particularly busy and that was the reason why he took so long to buy some groceries. Lindsay and Connor sat together in the garden. The weather was good today, the sun was out, but they still needed their jackets so they wouldn´t freeze. Lindsay just flipped a page in her book, when she heard a cry coming from the inside of the house. She immediately closed the book and she and Connor got up to rush into the house.  
"What happened?", Connor asked. He had stopped in the doorway, but Lindsay had entered the kitchen. Sue held her hand already under the icy water stream of the faucet.  
"I've burnt my hand on the stove."  
Lindsay levitated her hand above the stove and found out that it was freezing cold. But the blisters on Sue's hand didn´t lie. "The stove is off. How did you do that?"  
"It was turned on, I swear," Sue cried, "The stove was red hot when I touched it." Sue wanted to cook lunch and had already cut the vegetables. Even a pot was already next to the stove, but the pot was empty.  
Connor came over and checked the knobs of the stove. They all were in position 0. He promised he would check this immediately and after Connor had removed the fuse of the kitchen in the fuse box, he took the toolbox that once had belonged to Uncle Eddie. Connor pushed the stove away from the wall. Although Uncle Eddie had always kept his house, his furniture consisted of individually assembled cabinets and the stove and the refrigerator were not tightly integrated into the interior.  
"Please be careful," Lindsay said to Connor. While she provided Sues hand with a bandage, Jack came in and asked them what had happened. He was alone at the pond for fishing and had caught two fishes. They told him what had happened and Jack looked very worried.  
"Would you give me the electric test pin, please?", Connor asked and Jack rummaged in the tool box. He found the test pin immediately, but took the tool which was next to it and he finally gave Connor a screwdriver. "Ouch!," Connor suddenly yelled, he dropped the screwdriver and his body jerked almost automatically into the air, "That was the wrong tool! I could have died, Jack!" He had received a small electric shock which was interrupted for the most part by his craft glove and the isolation of the screwdriver.  
"Usually, people turn off the fuse box for things like this," Jack muttered.  
"I did. I was at the fuse box before I started. " For a second, he doubted whether he had turned off the right switch and then Jack and Connor went together to the metal fuse box, which was mounted on the back side of the cabin. The fuse for the kitchen was still off.

"I have to show you something," Lindsay's voice was serious when she met Connor alone in the kitchen. Sue and Jack were talking in the living room and Jack tried to calm down his girlfriend.  
"Do you remember the calls which you, Peter and I received the other night at the hotel on your phones at almost the same time?", She asked and he nodded, "I have reviewed my and your mobile phone. We received a call at 11:59 p.m. from this number." She showed him the display of their two mobile phones and Connor admitted he didn´t know this number.  
"I don´t either. But now I know to which port the phone number belongs. It's Uncle Eddie's phone number. If my guess is correct, then no one was inside the house at the time of the call, because Uncle Eddie was already dead and no one knows our phone numbers... So I ask you: who called us three in the night from this port?"  
He was well aware that she already knew the answer. And he also knew she didn´t like it, too.

After he had left the grocery bags on the kitchen table, Peter went into the living room, where his friends were already gathered. He first noticed the bandage on Sue's hand. Then he saw that they had packed their bags which were waiting in the hallway for the transport.  
"What happened?," asked Peter.  
"Your house is dangerous," Lindsay said, getting up, "Sue has burned her hand on a turned-off oven and Connor almost got an electric shock, although he has removed the fuse."  
"The cooker is just broken," Peter apologized, "I'll buy a new one."  
But Lindsay thought there were things that couldn´t be explained by a broken electrical appliance: For example, the noises she heard sometimes. And they all felt like observed. Or the refrigerator that had been looted miraculously. It was almost as if someone -or something- wanted to make them leave this place. Lindsay suddenly remembered the fact that the light in the house wasn´t working when she turned on the light switch and a few seconds later when Peter himself pressed it, everything was fine. And what about the weird phone calls they had received about the same time? The nightmare had begun when they arrived in Minnesota.  
"This place is dangerous," she repeated, "And I think you know as well as we do."  
"Our flight leaves tomorrow," Sue tried to sound not too excited as she looked up from the couch and Jack had his arm around her, "Maybe we can even fly a day early."  
"She's right," Connor agreed, "She also needs a doctor."  
Connor, Lindsay, Jack and Sue watched as Peter restlessly walked up and down in the living room. "Maybe we should call the airline and ask if we can already fly home before we have to spend the whole night at the airport," he even gave Connor his cell phone and he reluctantly took it Connor talked to a service- lady, who told him that all departures from Minneapolis were already overbooked.  
"So we will fly tomorrow," Peter finally said, when Connor hung up and returned the phone.

They had accepted the fact they had to spend another night in this house. Lindsay vowed she wouldn´t sleep in the darkness, but then tiredness overcame her and she fell asleep.  
Someone grabbed her shoulder and shook it. "Lindsay! ... Lindsay, wake up!", she heard Jack say and when she opened her eyes, she immediately was caught by a gray, smoky haze. "What's wrong?", she asked. Jack helped her getting up then she turned around and saw that Connor was sitting in bed and coughed. Sue brought him a glass of water.  
"The house is burning," Jack replied, "We have the only room with fire warning system..."  
She slipped in her shoes and ran around the bed to help Connor. "We have to get out of here before we get a smoke inhalation," he suggested and everybody agreed.  
"Where's Peter?", Lindsay asked, worried.  
"He's already downstairs."  
Together with Levi they walked down the narrow wooden stairs and Lindsay was relieved to see Peter at the door. Because of the expression on his face she could see that Peter had no idea how it had come to the fire. Levi ran past him to the outside. When she was walking at the last stage Sues foot broke through the dry wood and she screamed in pain. "Get out of here!," Jack commanded Connor and Lindsay, but they stayed with them. Jack tried to help his girlfriend to get out of the wooden stage. "It doesn´t work!", Sue wailed. The sharp edge of the wood was digging into her skin. "Go! Leave me here! "  
"We won´t let you back," Lindsay promised her and she was looking for a subject with which she was able to free Sue's foot out of the trap. Connor finally gave her an umbrella. Lindsay looked quizzically at her boyfriend, but then she put the top of the umbrella in a hole in the stairs and levered the breach until Sue was able to free herself.  
Meanwhile, Peter asked why his friends were still waiting for him in the middle of the burning house. On the way to the door he saw Lindsay, he hesitated and in that moment the door beams crashed behind Peter. "We have to get out of the back door", Jack cried.  
But Peter still hesitated. And they saw it too. Connor and Lindsay also saw that they appeared once again in the living room and waited for Peter there.  
"This is a hallucination, Peter!," Lindsay cried to him and when he didn´t respond, she added an almost angry "Peter!".  
"I don´t know, I...", but if they were a hallucination, why did Lindsay, Connor, Jack and Sue see them, too?  
"We have to get out of here," Jack said, "Or we'll burn with the house."  
Connor nodded. Before he reached for the doorknob, he paused: he felt the metal was hot, so he grabbed the baseball glove that was in Uncle Eddie's bookshelf, put it on and opened the door. Sue and Jack left the house through the kitchen, Connor and Lindsay remained in the doorway. "Peter, come on," Connor called to Peter.  
"Stay with us," the other Connor said, who was with Lindsay, Jack and Sue in the middle of the burning living room. They wore clothing that was covered with soot in some places.  
"You are not real," Peter stated and took a step back.  
"Why are you sure we aren´t?", Lindsay said, "We are your friends, Peter."  
"No." He shook his head frantically. But he hesitated for a second, because the characters looked exactly like his friends, but there was a difference, he only noticed when he looked at the people who actually had to be his friends. It was their shadow.  
"You let us down," Connor said.  
"We are your friends."  
"You deny us."  
"I don´t. You're not real! You're not real! ", with these words, Peter turned around and hurried to get out the door before the door beams fell down behind him. The rest of the building collapsed in itself and burned down in the darkness of the night.

They watched from a safe distance, how the firefighters tried to safe the house and ended a few small fires that had jumped on the adjacent trees. An ambulance had also arrived and provided them with hot coffee and warm blankets. "It's really a shame," Peter said to Connor, "It was a beautiful house."  
"It was a death trap," Connor corrected his best friend and noticed from the corner of his eye, how Peter nodded. The fire crackled and exuded a cozy warmth. Peter hated this idea, but at least the wood was good for one thing.  
"How did you know that they are a hallucination?", Sue was interested to know from Peter.  
"There was no shadow," Peter said, looking at her, "A hallucination doesn´t cast a shadow. A real person does."  
She nodded in agreement.  
"What do we do next?", Peter suddenly asked and looked at his friends.  
"Did he ask really, what do we do next?", Jack sounded incredulous.  
"He did."  
"Perhaps we should record a CD... I could sing "I Can Hear the Bells" from the musical Hairspray," Lindsay suggested, "I mean, if this is exciting enough for you."  
They seemed to have to think for a second and then everybody nodded –except for Peter. "I thought so," Sue said, gave Peter her coffee cup and went along with Connor, Lindsay, Jack and Levi to the rental car, which they had used for driving to this place.

Fin


End file.
